SPELLBOUND
by NoBuddy
Summary: A quiet evening in an almost empty hypermarket? Or a complete mess with Seph on top of it and Genesis coming to the rescue... in his own special style of course? Read at your own risk! We don't cover the emotional damage. Mwahahaa...


**A/N: Ahem, just so you know, this madness also happens here on Earth, just like the action in my other oneshots LIFE and KIDNAPPED, during our dear one-winged angels' vacations (or maybe secret missions? /still scratching head on this one, I'll have to ask them tonight, I promise!/) Read it at your own risk and don't throw bricks at me if you don't like what I put poor Sephiroth through. Tehee!!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, so don't sue! But Iarba is mine and Linneth is Glaurung's.  
**

**SPELLBOUND**

„How come the hypermarket is so empty today?" Genesis wondered, pushing the trolley leisurely along the main aisle between the long rows of racks, that was almost entirely deserted. „It's the last day of the great offer after all, isn't it?"

„Yeah," said Iarba, „but it's Monday and everyone just did their fill-up over the weekend."

„I guess so," shrugged the auburn-haired man, brushing the shelves with a lazy look.

A girl from the staff shot him a dreamy gaze and Genesis, as if he had a radar implanted in his back, turned his head and flashed her his most glamorous grin, completed with sharp shark look and twitching eyebrows. The girl stood there for a few moments practically paralyzed, like a deer caught in a pair of headlights, then fled to hide behind a rack, her cheeks almost as red as her uniform. Then she carefully popped only half a face out to throw furtive glances at him. Genesis' shiny mako eyes followed her without fail, as if he knew exactly where she had hid. And he kept flashing his teeth.

„C'mon Gen, leave that poor girl alone, don't scare her anymore!", Iarba nudged him.

„Bah, she craves to be ‚_scared_' like this," the redhead chuckled. „And besides, _**now**_ it's my moment, with Sephy being so busy with that whole rack of plushies aaaaaaallll for him – and him alone! If he walked next to me right now, who do you think would bother to look at me anymore?!"

„Aww," Iarba grinned, „do I detect a tiny bit of jealousy stirring the peaceful evening air?"

Genesis bulged his pecs and rose his chin with a smug look.

„I dare say he's not a bit more handsome than I am, Tonberry! He's just a _little_ taller and... has those feline green eyes and that mile of funny-colored hair waving all around him... gah!! _**Of course**_ chicks get glued on him everywhere he goes, for Ifrit's sake!!"

„And _**of course **_you're not jealous AT ALL, Jinx!", Iarba snickered. „And you know something? I bet that if he had his hair cut even shorter than yours, chicks would still get cricks in their necks twisting them to gaze at him!"

„Yeah, I know," Genesis sighed, „but you must admit the things would be more balanced though."

Iarba rolled her eyes with a sly look.

„Oh well, if you say so... Ah, there he is, finally! Hey Seph, over here!", she shouted, waving her hand.

Sephiroth waved back with a quiet smile and strode to them taking large steps with his overlong legs, while his overlong hair was swirling behind him.

„Good thing he doesn't seem to carry anything with him," Genesis mumbled, „cos I was planning on buying him a plushie for his birthday, but I so expected him to show up with a handful of them right now that I had almost given up hope already."

Strange indeed, Sephiroth didn't seem to have chosen any plushie and they stopped to wait for him and watched the man approaching. He was wearing the black jeans Genesis had bought for him some time before and a pair of black boots, one of Iarba's green T-shirts that matched his eyes perfectly and a short black leather jacket with silver studs – and he looked smashing, as always. A few more heads could be seen popping up from behind the racks and throwing long stares at him, among which there was also the girl that had gazed at Genesis only a little earlier.

The auburn-haired man sighed, slumping his shoulders a bit.

„I told you, Tonberry, no one looks at me anymore when he shows up!"

Iarba chuckled lightly:

„Alright, Jinx, lighten up already, cos I'll solve that problem for you right away!"

„Yeah? How?", he asked skeptically, raising one brow with an incredulous mien.

„Like this!"

And, as Sephiroth caught up with them, she sneaked one hand around his waist and dragged him closer until he was stuck against her. The much taller man smiled a little puzzled and circled her shoulders with one arm too, as she asked, making sure that just about everyone within the range of a mile would hear her loud and clear:

„There you are, _**sweetheart**_, what took you so long?"

And she snatched him down to her height to smack a loud kiss on his cheek.

Quite a dozen looks turned instantaneously from watching Seph in awe to glaring daggers at her, each blade inscribed something like: „_Who the heck are _**you**_, nobody?! He should be __**MINE**__!_"

„There you go, Gen," Iarba smirked, „when they finish giving me the Glares, they will turn back to you, cos you're the only one seemingly available around here. Happy now?"

Genesis rolled his eyes and let out another heavy sigh.

„Gah, thank you, Tonberry!"

A shrug.

„Don't mention it."

„Oh, don't worry, I won't! I'll bury myself alive first, before admitting that I actually need help to get out of Seph's looong and beautiful shadow."

Sephiroth gave him a funny look, but Genesis just shrugged and, as the long-haired man turned his emerald gaze to Iarba to ask her what that was all about, she just observed flatly:

„Look out, pal!"

The sound of brushes scrubbing the mosaic floor increased behind them and they saw a cleaning machine approaching them along the aisle. Iarba and Sephiroth let go of each other instinctively and Sephiroth stepped aside quite hastily, next to the racks, to make enough room for the machine to pass by.

And, in that very moment, all hell broke loose.

The succession of events only happened within seconds:

The cleaning machine's driver, seemingly startled by Sephiroth's rushed movement, turned the wheel trying to avoid him. The lower apron rubbed against the base of the nearest rack, causing the machine to turn even more and then one of the spinning brushes hit the rack in full force. Then a shower of various items rained from the quaking shelves over poor Sephiroth, who only had time to raise both hands trying to protect his head.

As Iarba saw in a glance, they had just reached the dividing line between the pets and the plants areas and thus a section of the shelves was full of various kinds of seeds and all sorts of bug-killing sprays and powders, while another section had bags of pet food and different vials of vitamins in solutions, pills or whatelse.

As they fell on the stunned, helpless silver-haired man, some of the bottles and wrappers just broke and the content spilled all over him. Then he just disappeared in a cloud of stinking powders and a loud enough blast resounded when some slops that should have never met in a million years mixed and gave birth to something utterly unthinkable.

Then he disappeared altogether.

Iarba rubbed her eyes.

„Seph?..." she shouted in alarm. „Seph, where the hell did you go?"

Then she turned to Genesis.

„He can't be too far, good thing he got out of this friggin madness in good time.", he shrugged, trying to look sure of himself.

Then their eyes fell on the floor as the nose-wrinkling cloud started to dissipate.

In a muddy pool of an indescribably sick color, covered in shards of glass and bits of pet food and half-dissolved pills, lay a pair of black jeans and two leather boots, as the edge of an emerald T-shirt flashing from a silver-studded jacket could be seen too.

A pair of jaws fell, perfectly synchronized.

„No!!!", Genesis shouted at the top of his lungs, stomping his foot in sheer rage. „No, no, NO!!! This is friggin' Earth, this just CAN'T happen here!!! Oh shit! Oh shit! OH SHIT!!!"

And he lunged forward, oblivious to anyone seeing or hearing him.

„Seph??? Are you in here somewhere?? Say something, buddy! Seph, where the hell are you?"

Avoiding warily the pool of Doom, he fell on all four and started to look frantically beneath the aisles and the shelves in a desperate attempt to locate his friend.

„What if he turned into some bug??", he wailed, thrusting both hands into his already ruffled hair. „How are we ever gonna find him? Oh my God, I might... I might just step on him, for Ifrit's sake!... Maybe I ALREADY HAVE!!!"

He tugged at his hair with a lost look, then just closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

„Ok Genesis Rhapsodos, you gotta pull yourself together," he mumbled. „You're not helping Seph one bit this way. Just find him first, wherever he is!"

He almost stuck his nose into the floor trying to see the unseeable. Then for an instant he was just struck dumb, in the middle of a word, as he saw a pale ray of green light emerging from somewhere at the very level of the floor. Then he cried again, incredulously:

„Sephy??..."

And he squeezed himself onto the mosaic, looking under a rack. There, hidden in the shadow between two flower pots, a rather big bullfrog was coiled up, trembling, with both front paws still covering his head in a very human gesture of anguish. His large green eyes that bore a terrified look were pouring a flickering wave of an eerie, definitely unearthly light, giving him away.

Relief washing over him, Genesis stretched his hand:

„Seph buddy, I'm here! Oh thank Goddess I found you! Come over now!"

The toad's pupils narrowed for a moment to the point of becoming mere slits, giving him a chilling snake appearance. Then they widened back in recognition as a flash of blinding green rushed out of them and he leapt from his hiding towards the redhead's open hands. The neon light in the hypermarket reflected shortly on his head in a clearly silverish hue – that and the snake-like eyes (or maybe feline, depending on anyone's point of view) could have been enough to speak of who he really was, but Genesis didn't need all those giveaways, he already knew for sure.

So he opened his hands to catch his friend. The soft green body circumscribed half an arch in the air... and hit in full force someone's leg, which had suddenly appeared in the way, as a few persons from the staff, alerted by the earlier blast, were finally arriving at the scene.

Genesis could only catch a glimpse of Sephiroth falling back on the floor, then leaping blindly again to one side to avoid being stepped over by other members of the personnel that were running towards them. A few more random leaps and he almost lost sight of his friend again. He cursed out loud and launched into a hot pursuit, pushing aside clueless people stepping in his way.

„Seph, wait! For Ifrit's sake, WAIT FOR ME, dammit!!"

But the bullfrog kept leaping, somehow managing to avoid being squashed at the very last moment, yet never being able to actually stop somewhere out of the way. Genesis cursed again. And he, wondering how the rest of the hypermarket could be so empty that day! Maybe because the whole blasted population of the area seemed to be massed precisely wherever poor Seph was trying to turn?...

As he noticed vaguely that they were in the clothes' area now, he just caught the sight of Sephiroth-the-bullfrog taking a large leap to the right and then it looked like he disappeared altogether again.

„NO!!", Genesis smacked his face in exasperation as he skidded to a forced halt in the said point and he looked everywhere for any trace of hopping green. Behind him there were rows of coat hangers, aisles with folded pieces of clothing and containers full of small items like socks and underwear. In front of him there were the trial boxes, behind a small desk where someone from the staff was guarding people's luggage while they were trying on the clothes.

Genesis' shoulders slumped a good deal as the adrenaline was slowly wearing off inside his body. He put one hand on his waist and the other one automatically raised to brush through his already wild hair.

The unnerving silence didn't take too long though.

An ear-splitting cry of fright tore the air and one of the boxes' door slammed open as a quite round lady in her sixties practically rolled outside with only one of her legs shoved in a pair of pants and still releasing an unintelligible, modulated cry of agony. As she barged over the hapless guy at the desk and fell over him, a spot of green, highly arching in the air, caught Genesis' mako eyes at once.

A rather big bullfrog with his large mouth open in utter terror and bearing a clearly haunted look on his froggish face and in the eerily slitted eyes.

There was no time to waste, not a second! Genesis took a high jump himself and successfully intercepted Sephiroth's trajectory at its highest point, then twisted his slender body, still in the air and landed safely behind the nearest rack. Last thing he saw was a glimpse of the fat woman pointing at him with a shaky finger while she gaped unable to utter anything recognizable and then he ran like hell, leaving behind him another few racks, until he almost reached the end of the clothes area.

That had been too close! He stopped and let himself fall backwards over a pile of blue jeans and jackets placed on a platform, still clutching his friend in both hands over his chest.

He stared at the ceiling for a few moments, then a hiccup shook his body.

Then another one.

Then again. He started to giggle uncontrollably, tears flowing from his eyes and making their way towards his ears and in a few moments he was howling with laughter, not able to contain himself anymore.

A pair (or maybe two?... wahahahaaaa!!!) of soft paws marched the short distance between his chest and neck and stepped on his trembling chin while the green froggish face of his friend entered his vision, crumpled in an expression of severly dented dignity and giving him Seph's widely known ‚Glare of Doom'. Trademark. All on a toad's face.

Genesis' body shivered violently with the howls as he laughed hysterically, unable to stop.

„Aw, aw, AWWWW, stop it Seph, please, aww, awww!...", he wailed, as the bullfrog kept slapping him over the face with his left front paw, leaning with the other on his shaky jaw. There was no way he could use one of his hands to take his buddy off his face, because of course both of them were clutched on his belly to prevent it from exploding with the hiccups of laughter and spill all his guts on the floor. Oh boy!

It took minutes on end to calm down eventually and he could only do it when poor Seph gave up on slapping him and instead he just coiled up dejectedly in the space between one of Genesis' shoulders and ears and let out a soft „Ribbit...", hiding his head into his paws again. That finally put a decisive end to Genesis' laugh. The mischievous auburn-haired young man could resist to his friend's rage anytime; after all, years of pranks had trained him for that without fault. But he could NEVER resist to Seph's grief.

So he collected himself and raised from the blue jeans pile, still sitting on the aisle's edge and holding his friend in both hands once again, next to his heart.

„I'm sorry, pal," he said with a voice full of repent. „I just couldn't help it, I had to let it out. But I never wished to hurt your feelings, never! I'm sorry, really!"

„So are you finally thru? Huh?", he heard a voice right behind him and he turned to see Iarba, leaning on the trolley's handle and giving him an impassive look.

As Genesis attempted to stand up, a childish, high-pitched voice resounded close to him on his other side:

„Mo-o-o-mmy-y-y, I want that froggyyyy!!!"

The typical whining of a definitely spoiled brat.

Genesis clutched his friend tighter against his body with an instinctive gesture, as Seph, too, seemed to try to practically bury himself into Genesis' chest.

A small boy of maybe five strode over to them determinatedly and stretched his hand with a demanding pose, then stared at Genesis without any trace of shyness and barked:

„Gimme that! I want the froggy! It's MINE!!!"

Genesis stood up and then looked down at him with a withering glare, without a word.

The child seemed overwhelmed by his height for just a second, no more, then stomped his foot and demanded again:

„It's MINE, MINE!! Gimme the froggy right NOW!"

Then, suddenly changing the register, he let out that high-pitched whining again:

„Mo-o-o-oooommyyyyy???"

A flawlessly-dressed woman with the face of a precious doll showed up instantly next to him and watched Genesis rather coldly.

„Excuse me, mister," she addressed with a very dignified look, „I am afraid we are in quite a rush right now, but surely you can get another plushie from the toy section... can't you?"

And she looked at him expectantly.

Genesis blinked a few times. Another... plushie? A _**plushie**_? Heheee!!...

They took Seph for a _**plushie**_?? Alright then. He mentally rubbed his hands as he straightened a bit and watched the woman stiffly. Her hand rested on the handle of her own trolley, which was more than half filled with various toys already. Well, he thought, no wonder she was in a hurry if she most probably had to spend a few hours trying to detach her son from the toy section! And now she expected him to just give up Sephy, be him a plushie or a real frog, only because her whiny brat stomped his foot and wanted to pile him up as well over a whole damn hill of toys that would soon be destroyed and thrown away to some corner, in only a day or two?! Really!!

„I am sorry, lady, but I have my own kid at home, wailing for this particular plushie ever since he saw it the first time. And there aren't any of this model left. So NO, I won't give it up for your kid, NO WAY! This one is taken. Period."

That said, he turned on one heel and strode directly to Iarba. Somewhere behind him the little brat seemingly threw himself on the floor, letting out horrible howls of rage while the woman was desperately trying to calm him down and at the same time emitted harsh considerations regarding the „inconsiderate bastards able to break a child's soul just like that", but Genesis didn't care one bit, nor did he turn to look at them again.

As they pushed the trolley beyond the ‚mined' section, Iarba chuckled:

„Your own kid wailing at home, huh? Brilliant one, hmpf!"

The redhead turned to her and flashed his mako eyes:

„Oh yeah? You think so? Well then, you should have just waited until we got home and had to tell Angii that I gave up Sephy to a nasty spoiled brat to make a toy out of him and THEN you'd see wailings and rage!!"

„Heh-heh, touché, good point on this one! Umm... you just didn't mention Vincent."

Genesis rolled his eyes.

„Gah, Vincent would have simply killed me, had I done this to his son."

„Bullseye again!", Iarba sniggered, then observed:

„You don't seem to particularly like children."

Genesis just shrugged.

„I love children. It's the spoiled brats I don't like. But at least them I only dislike. Their parents are another story; I hate their guts for what they turned their own offspring into. The children are at least still recoverable. Or that's what I hope in my incorrigible optimism."

Then his eyes fell on the content of their trolley. There were a few items that hadn't been there last time he remembered.

„What's the blanket for?", he asked, regarding the item, neatly rolled and circled by a band of paper.

„Oh, it's for Seph of course.", Iarba said quietly.

„Whaddya mean for Seph? What does he need that for? I thought we had enough of these at home."

Iarba gave him a glare.

„Put your mind to it, Einstein! What if this curse, spell or whatever the heck it is wears off while we're still here or on our way home?? He's gonna show up naked, duh!"

Genesis smacked his forehead with one hand and sniggered helplessly, as Iarba threw him another withering glare.

„Oh, we're laughing, are we!", she huffed. „Just imagine you were in his place right now. He at least has his hair to cover him somehow before everything turns really embarrassing. What about you, nuthead?"

The laugh froze on Genesis' lips and he coughed in utter horror, his whole face turning as red as a tomato.

„Sweet Minerva!!", he exclaimed and his gaze slid to the frog, covered with a side of his jacket and held in place by his other hand. Sephiroth had pressed himself on Genesis' chest and his little face bore an unmistakable air of grief.

„I'm sorry, pal," Genesis said with remorse, „don't worry, we'll do anything in our power to bring you back to your normal self."

Then his eyes went back to the trolley and he asked again:

„What's with that plastic bag over there?", as he regarded the said object, containing a mixture of hardly recognizable bits and pieces of... something and yet looking somewhat familiar to him.

Iarba followed his look.

„Aaa, that!", she said. „Well, I used the opportunity to take a sample from that mixture of whatever it was that fell on Seph. You know, to help us revert the thing. I thought that having a bit of this freaky stuff might help us understand sooner what happened and find some antidote or such."

Genesis regarded her with sincere admiration.

„That analytical mind of yours!"

„Yeah, well...", she shrugged. „I gave Linneth a call and consulted with her too. After all, she's been Seph's guardian angel for quite some time. Too bad she's not here now."

„Ummm, yeah. And Seph's clothes?"

„Over there in that bag. If someone asks at the checking point, I'll tell them they're for the dry cleaner but I forgot to leave them there before entering the shopping area. Duh, they obviously need cleaning."

„And the boots?"

„In another bag in my sack."

„You sure thought of everything!"

„Oh well, I had to do something while I was waiting for you to find Seph."

„You think they'll be able to do anything at the dry cleaner's?"

„Don't know and don't intend to find out. I'll wash them at home in fact, I won't leave them here."

Genesis watched Sephiroth again and the silver-green bullfrog met his eyes with a gulp.

„What about him?...", he asked. „What are we going to tell the cashier about him? He's too big and there's no place to hide him properly. He's no plushie, dammit!"

Then he just stopped frozen on the spot.

Plushie? Oh boy!

Iarba threw him a wary glance.

„Should I even ask...", she began.

„There IS a way," he mumbled. „And I think it's the only one right now."

Then he watched Sephiroth appologetically.

„Seph buddy, please don't take this harsh! We gotta get you outta here and this is the only thing that comes to my mind and might work. You have to pass for a toy. This way the cashier won't pay you any more attention than to the rest of the stuff and we'll be able to get out of here unnoticed."

Surprisingly, poor Sephiroth didn't seem mad at the thought. He just lowered his head and placed it back on Genesis' chest with a mien full of misery.

In the vicinity, Iarba cleared her throat with a meaningful sound.

„Umm... tag?", she asked raising one brow.

Genesis threw her a dim look, then his face finally lit up with understanding.

„Uh-oh, a tag. He needs a tag of course!"

And he rushed back towards the toy section to snatch some tag from another toy or look for a loose one. In a few seconds he was back, waving the thing.

„Heh, didn't need to go all the way back," he announced cheerfully, „someone left a plushie in the children's clothes section, luckily. Now, to put it in place..."

Without even looking, Sephiroth stretched one little leg obediently and Genesis put the tag around it, relief washing over him for not having to bear his poor friend's hurt look again.

The rest of their shopping was done quite silently and losing as little time as they could. They just hurriedly threw in the trolley the items they needed, wishing to get over the thing as quickly as possible, while Genesis was vigilantly holding Seph inside his jacket with one hand, throwing wary looks all over the place to stay away from smaller children.

Finally they reached the cash desk and started to place their stuff on the conveyor belt. There was the frightening moment when Genesis actually had to take Sephiroth out of the protective nest he had kept him in his jacket and put him over the other items too, but they had carefully chosen that point because there were no parents with kids around. In fact there was no one in their proximity.

Then the cashier started to pass them the items and Genesis put them in the bags and placed the bags back in their trolley. Seph was at the other end, sitting among the last things on the conveyor and Iarba was right next to him, ready to hold him if need be. Tags were read one by one and the conveyor advanced slowly.

Finally, the cashier – a middle-aged woman with a maternal appearance – grabbed Sephiroth and lifted him in the air to read his tag.

„AWWWW!!!", she let out a giggling squeal, if that was even possible. „Awww-awww-AWWWWW!!! This little guy is so, SO CUTE!! Just look at him – just look at you how cute you can be! Yes you are! Yes you AAARRRRE!! You're SUCH a CUTIE!! I oughtta get myself one like you, oh yes, oh YES!!! How come I haven't seen your like so far???"

And she gave him a tight squeeze at her large chest. Iarba only saw Sephiroth's eyes bulging to indescribable sizes and she opened her mouth and started to stretch her hand as if to try to snatch him away, but she wasn't able to actually utter one word from sheer stun.

Genesis' jaw had hit the table on his side too and he also had his hand outstretched, seemingly not knowing if he should roll with laughter or smack his face until it bled. The whole scene would have been madly hilarious if it wasn't so eerie in the first place. Poor Sephiroth had a completely mortified face and, squeezed to a terrifying degree at the woman's soft, ample chest, he couldn't resist anymore and let out a choking squeak.

A moment of deafening silence followed.

„AWWWW!!", squealed the motherly cashier again, „you have a squeaking device too, you little beauty! Let's see where it's placed! Uh, not here. Mmmm, not here either! Awww, where is it??"

And she started to squeeze his legs alternatively, going up and up on them until she reached his thigh area. At that point poor Sephiroth's eyes looked as if they were just about ready to pop out of his head any moment – and Genesis could finally gather his witts enough to administer himself a pair of loud slaps over the face in order to both wake up completely AND to prevent himself from coiling up on the floor in hysterics. He cleared his throat with a loud „ahem!!" and almost barked:

„Ma'am, as much as I hate to interrupt this heart-warming moment, I have a kid at home that waits for us to come back to him with this lovely toy, so, if you don't mind... can we have himmm… **IT** back now?"

The woman stopped a bit startled and then her cheeks caught a strong reddish hue as she detached the horrified Sephiroth from her chest and passed him over the tag reader.

„Um... I'm sorry, I kinda got carried away," she giggled embarrassedly. „This toy is such a cutie, your kid will surely love it!"

Genesis coughed again.

„Ahem, we really hope so," he said conveniently and grabbed poor heavily-abused Sephiroth hurriedly but carefully, to place him over the blanket in a bag.

Iarba paid the whole amount with Genesis' universal SquareEnix credit card, giving the cashier an understanding grin and then they flew off hastily. As soon as they were outside the woman's vision range, Genesis took his friend and sneaked him back into his jacket, then zipped it up to make sure he wouldn't slide away or be seen by anyone else. The bulge was quite significant, but they didn't care anymore, as in a few moments they were already outside in the parking lot, moving their bags into the back of the car. Only the blanket was kept at hand by Iarba and partially unfolded, to have it ready in case Seph would revert to his human form on their way home and would need to wrap himself in it.

It didn't happen though – fortunately or unfortunately, it was quite hard to say at that point – and they reached Iarba's place with Seph still cuddled in Genesis' red leather jacket.

Up at the door, as Iarba was still searching her pocket for the key, Vincent heard them already and opened it for them, enveloped in a wave of spice-flavored steam and with a large spoon in his hand, some sauce still dripping from its cup. It was his turn to cook that day.

He gave them an impassive look and asked flatly:

„Where is Sephiroth?"

Genesis rolled his eyes.

„Why, a very pleasant evening to you too!", he grumbled and stepped inside, dropping the shopping bags on the floor.

**- - - - - - - - - - -**

The dinner wasn't too cheerful. They all ate it in almost complete silence. Angeal looked downright crestfallen as he kept drawing patterns with the fork in the food on his plate. Vincent appeared to be as impassive as ever, but a certain dark cloud seemed to envelop him. Genesis kept uttering in silence something that sounded like spell formulas while he propped his forehead in one hand and from time to time shoved carelessly bits of food into his mouth. Sephiroth had a plate too but he never touched the food, he just sat beside it cuddled on a napkin and looking depressed down to the bone.

Genesis had observed at some point that the only thing that would probably make everyone feel better was for Seph to turn back instantly to his human form and end up naked on top of their dinner table, but noone seemed to see the fun in that and the joy thermometer dropped again to absolute zero.

It was going to be a very long and tiring evening.

Iarba retired with Genesis and Sephiroth in her bedroom and the redhead, settled cross-legged on her exercise mattress laid next to her bed, kept trying various combinations of spells, determined to give Sephiroth back his human shape.

Angeal and Vincent spent the evening in the kitchen, making all kinds of experiments based on the sample Iarba had brought from the cursed mixture that had turned poor Sephiroth into a frog. They kept mixing parts of it with other various herbs, powders and liquids from the household stock, boiling the thing and doing whatever crossed their minds with it in the hope of getting something that could serve as an antidote. Loud blasts could be heard from time to time when the ingredients proved to be just dangerous more than anything else. Finally at some point, when Iarba went to the kitchen, she found them both fallen asleep, Angeal with his head on a cook book on the table and Vincent leaning against the window sill, while a pot kept boiling on the cooking machine, spilling its content and letting out a wave of stinking greenish smoke.

She just shut down the cooking machine and dragged them to their beds, switching off the lights behind them, then turned back to her bedroom, where Genesis was still at work mumbling spells incoherently with a zombie face, while his head was dropping to his knees.

She climbed on her bed and just let herself fall on it, as poor Sephiroth lay beside her, all curled up on a pillow and looking withered and downtrodden.

Iarba pulled the blanket to cover herself and her froggish companion and cupped one of her palms over his back.

„Don't you worry, Seph," she almost whispered, „have no fear. We will find the cure for you, I promise!! Don't you ever worry!"

Then she closed her eyes to rest them a little while she would think about some other curing spells for him too.

Last thing she felt, halfway through the dreamland, was a little paw coming to rest on her cheek. Then she hopelessly slid into a deep sleep.

**- - - - - - - - - - -**

The clock started to ring and Iarba's hand snapped and hit the STOP button with an instinctive gesture. Still drowsy, shaking off the latest dream's shards, she fought to open her still tired eyes. Somewhere along this moment that threatened to stretch to unmeasurable lengths, someone stirred in his sleep next to her on the bed and what appeared to be a warm thigh rubbed against hers, while a muscular hand twitched over her chest, fingers squeezing lightly one of her shoulders. Her own hesitating hand crawled instinctively under the blanket and touched the warm mass pressed against her body. A hip. A firm, soft-skinned hip.

Huh??...

Her hand slid down a bit. Hip... thigh...no piece of clothing in between...

The person next to her stirred a bit again and a smooth mass of hair slid over her hand under the cover.

Iarba gave out a muffled yelp and almost sat up as realization finally dawned on her, but stopped in time before her bedmate woke up.

A low masculine snort-giggle-snort resounded somewhere at the floor's level.

She didn't know if Genesis had managed last night to give Seph his human form again, but whether it had been him or Seph had just reverted to his usual self over the night, it didn't matter now to her. He was human again and obviously Genesis knew that already.

Quietly, she began to disentangle from Seph's embrace very slowly, trying to avoid waking him up and embarrassing him even more with the awkward situation.

**- - - - - - - - - - -**

While everyone else still slept like dead, Iarba sat in the kitchen next to Genesis, both holding their mugs – a strong black coffee in his, a strong green tea in hers – with drowsy looks on drooping faces. Sun was shining through the window and birds happily chirped in the trees outside.

„Wanna know the conclusion of all this?" she mumbled rather sourly, chin stuck in her hand.

„Shoot!" Genesis yawned without even covering his mouth, eyes half-closed.

„So here I am, sipping my tea in my sunny kitchen with a gorgeous man right beside me, while another one still sleeps in my own bed. Stark naked, to be said..."

Genesis propped his own chin in one hand, eyes almost entirely closed now.

„Yeah," he yawned again cracking his jaw, „can life get any better than this?!"

Iarba threw him a grim glare, more sleepy than reproachful.

„... so I was saying: here I am, with one hot-looking male in my kitchen and another one dozing in my bed, without the tiniest piece of clothing on him... and it proves that both of them are my _**brothers**_!!..."

Genesis raised his head a bit to flash her his trademark mocking grin, which just about saved him from falling, face first, into the coffee mug.

„... and I'm asking you," Iarba grumbled sourly, „can life suck any more than THIS?!?"

* * *

**A/N: Just realized that poor abused Sephy doesn't get to utter at least one word in the whole fic, heh-heh! That is, if we don't count the squeaks and the occasional 'ribbit's. Mua-ha-ha-haa!!! Oh boy...  
**


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